Packages for sold medicaments in the past have appeared in a number of forms and in various degrees of complexity. The common container used by pharmacies for the dispensing of pills and capsules is an open-ended glass or plastic cylinder with a cap closure to retain the medicament when not being dispensed. The cap closure is sometimes a screw cap or alternatively may be a plastic snap-off cap or any of a variety of child resistant closures that require careful alignment of cap position in order to remove it from the container. Such caps rather than simplifying the opening and closing of containers usually make the process more difficult.
Certain of the prior art devices are especially designed to act as containers for the delivery of one unit of medication; e.g. a single capsule or pill at a time. Such devices are disclosed in certain U.S. patents. With reference to the delivery of single capsules, U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,365 discloses a dispensing container for single capsules which is essentially a pair of axial, telescoped members in which the inner member carries a stack of pills or other articles to be dispensed and the inner member may be reciprocated within the outer member between a normal, non-dispensing position and the dispensing position. The tubular members have openings which register when the inner member is depressed relative to the outer member, to allow the lowermost article of the stack to pass through the registered dispensing openings by gravity. One of the drawbacks of this type of dispenser is that the openings must be carefully registered and held in place until the article drops out. Thus, with this disclosure and others requiring careful manual manipulation, there is difficulty, for a patient having limited or painful finger mobility, in using such devices.
Austrian Patent No. 337,907--July 25, 1977 discloses a device for holding and delivering one or two pills at once. The structure disclosed is a cylinder terminating in a funnel shaped conduit for tablets and a hemispherical cap split vertically. The cap is held together by an outer cylindrical housing enclosing the inner cylinder and terminating in an open ended cone which is withdrawn to open the cap and prevent the release of other pills by the insertion of stops in the pill delivery tube. The device appears to require some manual dexterity to operate and would therefore be difficult to operate by a patient with limited finger mobility.
The following patents also describe devices for packaging and delivering medicaments.
1. U.S. Pat. No. 3,159,308, L. Passavanti PA1 2. U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,085, L. Meijer PA1 3. U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,804, Infante-Diaz et al. PA1 4. U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,365, A. Lorca
Issued Dec. 1, 1964 PA2 Issued June 25, 1963 PA2 Issued Feb. 4, 1975 PA2 Issued May 15, 1979.
None of these patents disclose any device which suggests applicants' claimed invention. Thus, each of the devices of the above 4 reference patents, requires careful manipulation by the user in order to register corresponding openings in an inner container and an outer container to provide an exit port for a single tablet. The outstanding difference between applicant's device and the 4 listed patents is that applicants do not require the careful registration of two separate openings in their device, nor is it required to carefully manipulate the device claimed in order to allow the exit of a single tablet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,159,308 of Passavanti discloses a device comprising a pair of tubular members having corresponding openings in the inner and outer shell of tubular members. As the opening of the two members are brought into registry, the lowest capsule in the stack in the inner tube is allowed to exit from the portal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,085 of L. Meijer discloses a container comprising an outer cylindrical shell and a centrally compartmented or recessed core having side pockets which cooperate with a surrounding shell whereby the side pockets are brought into registry with an opening in the outer shell. Here again careful manipulation of the device is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,804 of Infante-Diaz discloses a container for dispensing one capsule at a time, which has a rotary member carrying spaced radial walls fitted within a cylindrical body. This device has internal compartments which are brought into alignment with a corresponding opening in the outer wall to permit delivery of the capsules. In addition the device contains a closure gate for the opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,365 of Lorca discloses a container which comprises two receptacles one within the other, each having an opening in its respective wall. In order to allow capsules to be delivered, the two containers are manipulated in such a way as to align the inner and outer openings so that one capsule at a time may be dispensed. Here again careful manipulation and control of the device is required to permit exit of a tablet from the container.